


Dreamverse

by darkemrys



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bill Weasley is a good friend, Black Hermione Granger, Black Lavender Brown, Don’t copy to another site, Established Relationship, F/M, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Harry is extremely unhappy in his relationship with Ginny, M/M, Molly Weasley Bashing, Post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Potions, Time Travel, in his own way, so is percy, unhappy relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21561859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkemrys/pseuds/darkemrys
Summary: Dating Ginny Weasley had become a miserable experience for Harry Potter. He tried to grin and bear it, but secretly, what he wanted was a way out.Fortunately for him, Bill Weasley might have the solution to his problem in the form of a tiny potion.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Percy Weasley, Fleur Delacour/Bill Weasley, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Lavender Brown/Harry Potter, Percy Weasley/Oliver Wood
Kudos: 102





	Dreamverse

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone! Welcome to the first one shot of the series!
> 
> This used to be part of a drabble collection, but I decided to turn that into a series. 
> 
> Before you read this, there’s a few things you need to know.
> 
> 1\. The epilogue never happened in this story. This takes after DH, but the epilogue doesn’t exist. 
> 
> 2\. There is a tiny bit of Molly Weasley Bashing in this one shot. 
> 
> Now, you know that, enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling.

It didn’t take long to realize that Harry’s relationship with Ginny was a hot mess.

Things were different during their Hogwarts days. Living with the uncertainty that the next day would be his last gave the young savior of the Wizarding World a sense of urgency to grab life by his fingertips and enjoy every facet of it that he could before he had to face the looming threat of Voldemort.

Dating Ginny was one of those things.

He thought he loved her. He believed that with all of his heart and soul, and was even more convinced when breaking up with her caused a pain in his chest that no words could describe.

But after the war, after Voldemort’s defeat, Harry realized….he didn’t love Ginny…he never did. He liked her, yes, but the feeling of being a soldier who would be called to war at any given moment intensified what he felt for Ginny. It confused him. It made him believe what they had was love.

How could he have known? He was a child back then. He was much too young to even know what love was.

Still, despite knowing all that….he still stayed with her. Harry broke her heart once, he didn’t want to do that again. On top of that, there was Mrs. Weasley to consider.  
He loved Mrs. Weasley like a mother and he wanted to do everything he can to make her happy. Unfortunately for him, his “relationship” with her daughter made Mrs. Weasley extremely happy.

The matriarch of the family threw a party big enough to rival the celebration of Bill and Fleur’s marriage when she discovered that Harry and Ginny were back together again three years later during the chilly Autumn season. They both decided to keep their relationship under wraps for a while….at least, to see if their relationship would last over a year and to make sure that there wouldn’t be anymore surprise break ups on Harry’s side. But, once one year turned into three, Ginny couldn’t wait to spill the beans to her mother. All of their nearest and dearest friends were invited to the occasion as Mrs. Weasley entertained them for hours by telling the story of how Harry and Ginny fell in love in their youth, only to be separated by war, and then found each other once again.

Harry didn’t say an entire word throughout the party. All he did was hide in a corner away from everyone, stuffing his face with as many delectable, sweet pastries he could get his hands on. Eating seemed better than the alternative. If he had to talk to people, he might accidentally let it slip that he wasn’t as happy as everyone believed him to be.

Every so often, he could feel Mrs. Weasley’s eyes fall on him and he always shivered when their eyes met. There was a cold look in her eyes that expressed all of her thoughts without her having to utter a single word.

“Talk to people. Tell them how happy you are. Tell them how happy Ginny makes you. Tell them how you are the luckiest person on the face of the Earth because Ginny forgave you and took you back after how you treated her.”

All Harry could do was turn his face away, so he wouldn’t have to look at the woman that knew him since childhood. Then, Mrs. Weasley stared right at him and asked loudly in front of everyone, “So, Harry dear, we’ve all been wondering…when are you two going to get married?”

The Pumpkin Pastry that was halfway down his throat decided to become stuck at that very moment. Harry began to cough violently. With balled fists, he began to beat on his chest, but that didn’t seem to solve the problem. Ron and Hermione flew to his side in a heartbeat while Ginny just knelt in front of him, holding his face with both hands, as she asked with a voice full of concern,

“Harry, are you alright?”

Seeing his girlfriend so closely made Mrs. Weasley’s question plague him like a sickness. Over and over again, only one word repeated itself in his mind on loop.

Marriage

Marriage

Marriage

His stomach began to twist violently into knots. Explosive waves of pain attacked his belly, which each affliction becoming more painful than the last. A terrible aftertaste of all the food he had wolfed down overwhelmed his senses. Suddenly, hot bile that burned his throat raced up his throat. He yanked Ginny’s hands from his face and tried to scramble to his feet to move away, but it was no use.

In front of everyone, Harry vomited on his girlfriend.

Ginny screeched in mortification, but Harry could barely hear it over the sound of him vomiting once again. This time, all the last remaining liquid content of his stomach landed on the wooden tile of The Burrow.

SPLASH!

When it was all over, Harry tumbled backwards, making his back crash against the legs of a white chair behind him. His head hung low in exhaustion, but he weakly raised it when he heard a single sniffle.

Ginny was on the verge of tears as vomit the color of sand dripped from the top of her head all the way down to her toes, staining her red dress on the way down.

Harry coughed and tried to reach out to her, apologies forming on his tongue, “Ginny, I-“

His attempted apology went unheard as Ginny shot to her feet and fled from the crowded room until the sound of a door slamming shut made an uncomfortable silence fill the room. A mixture of astonished, disappointed, and even angry eyes fell on Harry, making the wizard want to crawl into a hole and never come out.

Harry could feel hands grab his arms place them over warm shoulders while his body felt it was being hoisted in the air. On both of his sides were Ron and Hermione as the duo helped a weakened Harry walk upstairs to his bedroom while Arthur Weasley declared,

“The party’s over.”

—————-  
After getting changed out of his tuxedo and slipping into some borrowed pajamas, Harry lied in bed while the events of the party replayed themselves like a time turner that Harry couldn’t control.

He had humiliated Ginny in front of everyone and what was worse, he angered Mrs. Weasley. The mother of seven was already upset with him, but throwing up on her daughter in front of everyone definitely had soured the familial bond that they used to have. Harry wanted to apologize to both of them, but he felt like that was a fool’s errand. The only thing that would result in was a slammed door in his face from Ginny and plenty of yelling from Mrs. Weasley and he didn’t have the strength to deal with both of them happening right now.

His ears perked up when he heard the muffled sounds of Mrs. Weasley arguing with Ron. With a groan, he pulled the covers over his head. Great. Now, he made Ron fight with his mother. Is there anything else that he could make go wrong today?

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

“Can I come in?”, Bill’s voice resonated inside the tiny room that Harry housed himself in.

“Yes.”, he mumbled quietly.

The door opened and Harry felt the mattress shift when Bill sat on the edge of the bed.  
“Are you okay?”, Bill questioned gently.

“I threw up on my girlfriend, ruined the party, and now my best friend is fighting with his mom. Do you think I’d be okay after all that?”, Harry snapped, before wincing at how much of a jerk he was acting like.

“I’m so sorry.”, Harry apologized earnestly, “It’s just….”

Bill patted him on the head, “We’re good, Harry.”

“But-“

“We’re good.”, he insisted, “Trust me, Harry. I’m not mad at you.”

“How’s Ginny?”

A serious look crossed Bill’s face at the mention of his younger sister. He informed, “She’s furious with you. There’s no question about that. After she finally stopped crying, she pretty much called you ever name under the sun that she could think of. Hermione’s trying to calm her down as we speak.”

More sounds of barely hearable angry screaming echoed throughout the house, which made Bill say, “I don’t think I need to explain to you how Mom is feeling.”

Harry shook his head slowly before saying, “When everything has calmed down, I’m going to talk to Ginny…..and hope she can see how sorry I am for all of this. Then-“

Bill cut in, “You need to break up with her.”

Harry looked at the eldest Weasley child with panicked eyes, which made Bill scoff.

“What? Did you honestly think you were fooling anyone? Harry, it is painfully obvious that being with Ginny is making you miserable. Everyone can see it.”

“But….dating Ginny…..it makes her happy….her and Mrs. Weasley….”

“You’re right. It does. It makes them happy, but not you. You can’t live your life making other people happy. You have to live for you.”

“But what if….what if I could learn to love Ginny? I mean, I liked her….surely I can…”

“You can’t be serious.”

“You want me to break her heart again?! You want me to make your mom angry again?! I did both by breaking up with Ginny once before, in case you forgot!”

“So, what?! You plan on dating my sister under false pretenses and walking down the aisle with her, knowing full well that you don’t want to?! She deserves better than that and you know it! Both of you do.”

“It’s easy for you to say, Bill! You don’t get it! You don’t understand!”

“I don’t get it?! I don’t understand?! Harry, out of everyone here, I might be the only person who understands, or did you forget that two years ago, Mom was more than happy to try destroy my relationship with Fleur?!”

Bill was breathing heavily after yelling those words at the top of his lungs, but all Harry could do was stare at him with his mouth slightly hanging open in shock. The memories of Mrs. Weasley and Ginny mistreating Fleur came to his mind as quick as a flash along with the attempts to push Bill and Tonks into relationship, despite the fact that neither of them were interested in each other. He was right. Bill did go through the same exact thing that Harry was going through right now. How could Harry have forgotten that?

Bill ran a hand through his hair. “You guys don’t know this, but there was a point in time where I planned on doing exactly what Mom wanted.”

“Y-You were going to break up with Fleur?!”, Harry interrogated in astonishment.

“Yes, I was. I was going to make the biggest mistake of my life because Mom wanted me to.”

“What made you change your mind?”

“Percy did, actually.”

Percy? Hearing the name of the boy who dismissed his claims about Voldemort’s return made Harry feel a little….skeptical. Percy cut off mostly all contact with his parents and his siblings after pledging his loyalty to the ministry and moving out of the Burrow after he graduated from Hogwarts. Hearing that he was the reason that Bill’s relationship with Fleur was salvaged sounded unbelievable.

Bill commented, making Harry believe for one second that Bill possessed the ability to read minds, “I know what you’re thinking. Percy saving my relationship? Sounds way too be crazy to be true. But, I swear, Harry, he did.”

“Not to sound rude or anything, but…why would Percy care? The Percy I knew was ambitious and mostly cared about elevating his own status and-“

THWACK!

Bill’s hand collided against the back of Harry’s head, making the boy rub his slightly-pained head and mumble, “Owwwwwww….”

There was no remorse or regret in Bill’s voice when he said, “Talk smack about my family, you get smacked by me. You may be part of the family, Harry, but not even you are exempt from that rule.”

“Sorry….”

“You better be.”

“So, how did he do it? How did he get you and Fleur to stay together?”

Bill dug his fingers into his pocket and pulled out a tiny vial of pink liquid. “With this.”

Harry stared at the object in Bill’s hands with curious eyes. “What is it?”

“It’s a potion that allows you to take a glimpse into your future.”

His answer made Harry snort. “Okay, I know we can do magic and a lot of things are possible because of that, but being able to look into the future? Come on, you can’t be serious.”

Bill’s eyebrow traveled a few inches up his forehead. “Is this coming from the guy got hit with the Killing Curse at point blank range by the most evil wizard the world had ever known and lived to tell the tale?”

Harry opened his mouth to retort, but no words came to his mind. He couldn’t come up with a convincing argument to counter that. Bill made a good point. He did survive a curse that no one was supposed to recover from.

“I’m surprised, Percy, of all people-Let me finish!”, blurted Harry when he saw Bill beginning to fume with anger. Once he saw Bill regain his composure, he continued, “When we were at school together, Percy seemed to know exactly he wanted to do. He didn’t question anything. He didn’t have any doubts. He just…..went for it, you know? It’s surprising to hear that he would even have a potion like that.”

Bill said, “While you do have a point, there’s a lot about Percy you don’t know. It’s not my place to tell you all his secrets, but let’s just say…..his choice of employment wasn’t the real reason he never moved back home.”

“Was it because he liked boys?”

Bill looked at Harry with eyes so full of panic that it made the green-eyed, brunette want to hug him and say he did nothing wrong. Instead, he confessed,

“Even when he was dating Penelope, I always thought he really liked boys, especially since he was practically drooling over Oliver during out Quidditch matches.”

That made Bill erupt with laughter. “Wow, Percy, way to not be subtle.”

Harry’s eyes drifted back to the potion once again. “So, did he get one of those to see if he would be happy in the future and date whoever he wanted?”

“Yep.”

“Well….did it work?”

“I would say so, considering the last time he wrote me, he was talking about his master plan to court Malfoy….”

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Malfoy?! As in Draco Malfoy?!”

“You know any other Malfoys you went to school with?”

“But-But-But it’s Malfoy!”, Harry sputtered in response. Sure, Malfoy had reformed himself, left his past as a Death Eater behind him, and was trying to his hardest to be the best possible person he could be. But….it was still Malfoy. Hearing that Percy actually was interested in dating Harry’s formal rival was shocking enough to make even the most stoic person do a double take.

“I know. I said the same thing when I first heard the news, but Percy says that he’s quite charming and he’s the only one that can actually match him in terms of intellect.”

“And….this tiny little potion told him he would be happy…..with Malfoy?”

“That’s right. It also told me that I would live my best life if I married Fleur.”

Bill dropped the potion into Harry’s uncertain hands. “It just might point you in the right direction to your happiness too.”

“I don’t know….”, Harry said.

“Look, you don’t have to take it if you don’t want to. But, honestly, what do you have to lose? You’re already unhappy now. You might as well see if there’s a chance you get to be happy in the future. It’s up to you.”

Bill rose to his feet, proclaiming, “I’m going to check on Ginny.”

He made his way towards the door, but before he was seconds away from walking through the doorframe, Harry stopped him with a question.

“How does it work?”

—————-

The instructions were simple.

All Harry had to do was take the potion right before he went to sleep. The potion would allow him to see his future in his dreams and then the effects of the potion would fade away as he started to wake up.

Once he was awake, he would still retain the memory of what he saw during his dreams.

Short, sweet, and simple, and the best part, absolutely nothing dangerous about it at all.

In theory, the potion seemed like a full proof plan with absolutely no problems. Yet, despite knowing that, Harry couldn’t help but feel a smidge of fear as he held the tiny vial of pink liquid in his fingers.

The potion was supposed to show him his future, but what if he didn’t like what he saw? If Percy saw that he would be happy with Draco Malfoy, who knows who the potion would make Harry see as his romantic partner in life?

What if it was someone he didn’t get along with when he was young like Blaise Zabini?

What if it was someone he knew and got along really well with but had absolutely no interest in dating like Neville?

Or, even worse, what if it was someone who was already involved in a relationship like Ron or Hermione?

Thousands of “what ifs” zoomed through his head at breakneck speed, but all of those thoughts came to a crashing halt when Bill’s words began to replay themselves in Harry’s head.

“What more do you have to lose? You’re already unhappy now.”

Bill was absolutely right. Harry wasn’t happy in the slightest, at the moment, and his unhappiness would get worse if Mrs. Weasley actually managed to get him to marry Ginny.

This potion could be his ticket to a better life.

And, even if he sees that he starts a relationship with someone he doesn’t like currently, who’s to say that they, or even he, isn’t a completely different person by that time? Things change with time and people were no exception.

Besides, if he genuinely hated his future, he could always change it. The future wasn’t set in stone.

With those last thoughts on his mind, Harry took a deep breath and buried any lingering feelings of fear in the back of his mind.

POP!

He flicked the cork top off the vial and it sored through the air before landing on the soft mattress, merely inches away from him. Bringing the small container to his lips, he threw back his head and let all the liquid slide down his throat in one swig.

When the potion touched his tongue, Harry could taste a soft sweetness that reminded him of what he always believed a love potion would taste like. Then, like a bolt of lightning, he was hit with a strong, sudden feeling of drowsiness.

His mouth stretched open in a yawn as he let his head rest on the cotton pillow behind him. His eyes began to grow heavier and heavier by the second and he made no attempt to stop them from closing. Within seconds, Harry was sound asleep as the potion began to run its course and alter his thoughts.

———————-

WOOF!

WOOF!

WOOF!

The barking of a dog made Harry groan in agitation from getting his slumber interrupted. He twisted and turned while burying himself under the comforter that kept him warm. Maybe, if the beast thought he was asleep, he would give up on trying to wake him up. It was the last day before he had to head back to work and all he wanted to do was sleep in. He was already tired from being roped into pulling an all-nighter to help Draco pull off the most fancy and elaborate proposal to Percy-

Wait, what?

Before Harry could even gather his questioning thoughts, he felt a huge weight nearly crush him in his bed. A large, wet pink tongue caressed his face over and over, giving the sleepy man affectionate, yet unwanted kisses. Harry sat up to see the largest, golden retriever he had ever seen, sitting on him with his tail moving up and down with excitement.

It’s brown eyes were staring into Harry’s green irises as if it was silently begging him for a pat on the head or some time to play with him. Hesitantly, Harry patted the dog on the head, which seemed to make the animal quite content.

“Harry, are you up yet?! Breakfast is almost ready!”

The sound of a female voice that Harry wasn’t familiar with made his heart nearly drop into his stomach. The dog ran ecstatically out of the room, leaving Harry to face this newfound revelation alone. His mind screamed at him,

“Okay, don’t panic. You’re not married to Ginny. That’s a good sign…a great sign! It means you got out of that horrible situation you were in.”

To an audience of no one, he said to himself as if he was arguing with his mind, “That’s all well and good, but I don’t recognize who’s calling me. There’s a chance that I don’t even know who I’m living with.”

He rubbed his hands with anxiety, which got even worse when he felt something hard around his finger. Looking down, his mouth dropped in shock to see a golden ring on his left index finger.

He wasn’t only living with this woman. He was married to her.

Harry nearly pumped his fist in the air with joy, but that elation quickly turned into worry when he realized he still had no idea who he tied the knot with.

Well, only one way to find out….

He breathed in and out deeply before walking out of the bedroom and slowly strolling into the kitchen. As he got closer and closer to his destination, his nose was hit with the scent of freshly made pancakes and bacon. His mouth began to salivate while his stomach began to growl loudly. But, when he was inches away from entering the room where delicious food was being prepared, he froze in mid-step.

A feeling of uneasiness began to sweep through Harry. In a few seconds, he was going to meet the woman he was going to marry…the woman he planned on spending his life with.

It wasn’t Ginny. He was certain of that. However, the uncertainty of the identity of the mystery person that he ultimately fell in love with later in life terrified him to no end.

He was satisfied with knowing that he didn’t marry the girl he’d known since he was eleven. That was enough. Nothing would make him happier than waking up right now in the familiar environment of The Burrow.

Unfortunately for him, Harry rarely got what he wanted.

The dog that unjustly woke him up noticed his hesitance to enter, so it decided to lend Harry its assistance. Running up to him, it barked before sinking its teeth into a lose corner of one of the long sleeves of his pajama top. With a forceful strength that Harry didn’t even know that dogs could have, the creature pulled Harry into the kitchen with a tug.

“Get off me!”, Harry hissed.

The dog ignored Harry’s command and just kept pulling him further and further inside.

“I said, get off-“, Harry started to scream until he started to hear the sound of humming.

He looked upwards to see a woman with dark brown skin with her back turned towards him. A spatula was in her hand and she wasted no time in flipping over two, large, round golden-brown pancakes. Unlike normal pajamas, she wore a bright, red shirt that was a little too large that hung on her shoulders in a crooked angle, leaving one shoulder bare while the other was completely concealed by fabric.  
Her curly brown hair was pulled back into a messy bun that had a few strands that were able to stay free from confinement. On her left hand, Harry could see a golden band that matched his around her index finger.

Despite that he hadn’t seen the woman’s face yet, being in such close proximity to her made Harry feel more self-conscious then he had ever been in his life.

Inside, he scolded himself, “Come on, Harry, you’ve faced men with two faces, creatures both big and small, survived the TriWizard Tournament, faced countless Death Eaters, and fought toe to toe with Voldemort himself. After all that, you can’t do something as normal as meet a person?”

“But this isn’t just any ordinary person, is it? This is your future wife. This is the woman a future version of yourself wants to marry. You’re lucky that you aren’t shaking in your boots, if you were actually wearing some.”, a voice inside his head replied cheekily.

WOOF!

WOOF!

The dog’s barks shook Harry out of his thoughts and made the woman turn around.

The warmest brown eyes that Harry had ever seen in his life were staring at him while Harry was in awe as his eyes looked over her face. Freckles were scattered across her skin, but the most striking physical feature she possessed where the five scratch marks that marred her face, traveling diagonally from right to left.

Even though her face held scarring, Harry couldn’t deny that she was absolutely the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

A smile that could light up the entire world graced her lips as she asked playfully, “Finally up, are we?”

Before he could even say a word, she closed the distance between them, wrapped her arms around his neck and placed a kiss on Harry’s unsuspecting lips. His eyes grew as large as the silver dining plates that he used to eat off of at Hogwarts. His hands found themselves planted on her sides. With her so close to him, Harry could catch the faint, flowery scent of daffodils coming from her.

Before Harry could blink, the kiss was over. She took a small step backwards, but her arms remained where they were and Harry’s hands didn’t move either. Inside his mind, Harry dredged up every memory of his Hogwarts years that hadn’t faded away with time to see if there was a chance that he had met her years before.

Suddenly, images of memories that Harry believed that he had long-forgotten began to replay in his mind: Quidditch games during his sixth year…..Ron pumping a fist in the air in victory as he helps his Quidditch team win countless games as a Keeper….and….a girl the same age as they were kissing Ron fiercely in the middle of the Common Room during a celebration of another victorious Quidditch match.

Finally, words began to form on Harry’s lips.

“Are you-“

A teasing smile formed on the woman’s face and she placed a finger on Harry’s lips, silencing him entirely. Her face inched closer towards his and for a moment, Harry thought she was going to kiss him again. However, when her lips brushed past his face, he felt a pang of disappointment.  
Instead, her lips found themselves nearly touching his ear as she whispered, “You only get a glimpse, remember. It’s time for you to wake up.”

Those words made Harry feel like a rug was being pulled out from under him. In shock, he blinked, but as soon as his eyelids snapped back open, he found himself standing in the kitchen alone. Then, without any warning, darkness began to dance in the corners of his eyes and with each passing second, the darkness began to grow more bold and noticeable. The floor beneath his feet vanished into thin air and Harry began to plummet into the black abyss before him, screaming all the way down.

As he was falling, he could hear someone calling his name.

—————-

“Harry!”

“Harry!”

“HARRY!”

He awoke with a start and shot upwards in a sitting position, bumping his head against someone who was sitting on his bedside. A dull ache was born in his forehead from the collision as Harry rubbed the pained spot with closed eyes, saying, “Owwwww…..why do you have such a hard head, Bill?”

But, when he opened his eyes, he discovered that it wasn’t Bill sitting next to him.

It was Ginny.

While she was also busy rubbing her aching forehead, she looked at Harry with solemn eyes. Hesitantly, she spoke up.

“I….I’m sorry to wake you up like this, but I feel like we need to talk….”

“Yeah, we do need to talk.”

They turned their faces away from each other, which made an awkward silence begin to develop between the two. A second later, both of them looked back at each other once again and spoke at the same time.

“I’m sorry-“

“I want to-“

Embarrassed chuckles erupted from the two before Ginny gestured towards Harry, saying, “You go first.”

“I’m sorry for embarrassing you at the party. I didn’t mean to-“

“It’s okay, Harry. It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“Ginny-“

“Harry…”, she urged, “I’m alright. I mean, sure I was grossed out, but I’m over it now. Besides, there was a bright side to all of this.”

“Really? What was it?”

“The party ended early…”, Ginny said with a grin as she leaned backwards and sprawled across the mattress, making herself extremely comfortable.

“You didn’t like the party either?”, Harry asked, holding a shred of hope in his heart that hopefully….maybe….Ginny didn’t like dating him just as much as he didn’t like dating her.

“Nope. It was exhausting, having to plaster a fake smile on your face and pretend that everything is perfect…that our relationship is perfect.”

“That’s exactly how I felt too.”, Harry said with his chest feeling lighter and lighter as he continued to talk to the redhead.

“And then Mom, out of the blue, just asks you when we’re going to get married! Ugh, even I felt sick when she did that!”

Harry could literally see hope dangling in front of his face. “So, you think we shouldn’t get married?”

Then, that same hope that Harry was so close to grabbing was snatched out of his grasp when Ginny slid her hand over his saying, “Well….I wouldn’t say that….”

Dread started to eat away at Harry when he investigated, “You….You honestly think we should get married?”

Ginny sat back up. “Well…not now of course…but…I was hoping that one day….we would get our chance.”

“No.”

The word slipped out of his mouth before he even thought about holding in it. Hurt flashed in Ginny’s eyes for a moment before she asked in a voice that sounded confused, yet still contained a sliver of hope that there was some sort of misunderstanding between them,

“Do you mean “no” as in “No, we shouldn’t get married right now.”?”

“No, I mean, we shouldn’t get married at all.”

Ginny’s grip tightened on Harry’s hand as she said with a hint of desperation, “That’s…..That’s okay. We….We don’t have to get married! We can still live a happy life together. As long as we love each other-“

“But, that’s the thing, Ginny. I don’t love you.”, he admitted, ripping her hand away from his and removing himself from the bed.

His confession came out harsher than Harry had intended, but it felt good to finally voice his true feelings.

Then, that positive feeling that was bubbling inside of him popped out of existence when Ginny denied his claims with watery eyes, “No…You…You don’t mean that.” She stood up too and tried to inch closer to him, but he started to back up just to create some distance between them.

Seeing such a pained expression on Harry’s face almost made his heart burst with agony, but it didn’t. His dream of his future life with someone else gave Harry the one thing he needed more than anything in this situation: courage.

“I’m sorry, Ginny, but I do.”

“You’re-You’re lying!”

“I promise you, Ginny, I’m telling you the truth.”

“No! No, you’re not!”

Tears began to flow down Ginny’s face while she became redder and redder with each wall of denial that she built to shield herself from Harry’s harsh truths, but thirteen words were strong enough to cause those walls to come tumbling down.

“I’m sorry, Ginny, but the truth is…..I was never in love with you.”

In the blink of an eye, Ginny zoomed towards him. Her hands flew to his shirt as angry fingers grabbed fistfuls of cloth as she demanded, “So what?! What was our whole relationship then?! Was it all a joke to you?!”

Harry gently pulled Ginny’s hands off of him. “No, it wasn’t a joke to me. I genuinely liked you and I wanted to see where our relationship would go at first.”

“Then, what happened?! What changed?! Did I do something wrong?!”

“Ginny, no….you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just…”, Harry bit his lip nervously before admitting, “….Once the war was over and we finally had the chance to sit down, breathe, and live a normal life, I realized that living with the constant threat of Voldemort made me feel things a lot stronger than a person normally would. It made me confuse like with love.”

“Then, learn to love me.”

“Ginny…”

“It could work! You said you liked me and I know for a fact that I love you. So, stay with me. Keep dating me. Learn to love me.”

“I can’t.”, Harry responded with a shake of his head.

“It can work!”

“No, it won’t.”

“It might if you would stop being so difficult!”

“I’m not doing it.”

“Why not?!”

“Because, I am done trying to stay in a relationship where I’m absolutely miserable.”

Those words made Ginny’s jaw slightly drop in bewilderment. Her reddened, brown eyes conveyed a mixture of different emotions: shock, hurt, betrayal... Her whole body began to tremble as if it was suffering a physical reaction to Harry’s words.

Despite seeing Ginny’s vulnerable state of mind, Harry continued, “Ginny….being with you is making me miserable, okay?”

“If you were so miserable, why did you stay with me all this time?!”, she snapped with fire in her voice and Harry could tell that her blood was boiling.

“Honestly, it was out of guilt and a sense of fear. I felt so bad for hurting you last time, so when you came to me and said you wanted us to date again, I didn’t have the heart to say no. On top of that, there was your mother-“

“Leave my mother out of this. She has nothing to do with our relationship.”

“Normally, you would be right, but in this case, she does factor in it. I love your mother like she was my own, but if there is anyone who loves our relationship more than you, it’s her. Ginny, she was furious that I embarrassed you in front of everyone and the party had to be cancelled. Imagine how much worse her temperament would be if I told her to her face that I didn’t want to be with you anymore.”

“So what? You tell me and expect for me to do your dirty work for you? Well, let me make one thing clear. I’m not doing anything for you. You want to rip her heart out? You’ll be the one to do it….just like you’re ripping out my heart right now.”

“Ginny, believe me, the last thing I want to do is hurt you.”

“Really?! You embarrass me in front of everyone and then have the nerve to break up with me on the same night. Hurting me seems to be the only thing on your agenda right now.”, she said, jabbing her finger into his chest with every single word.

“I hate making you feel this way, but-

Ginny refused to let him get another word in. “Do you? Do you really? Because, honestly Harry, if you really hate making me feel this way, you would take back everything you said. You wouldn’t break up with me and you wouldn’t look me in the eye and tell me you don’t love me. So, you really want to make it up to me? Do all of that.”

Harry just closed his eyes and turned his gaze to the floor.

“But you won’t, will you?”, Ginny asked in a completely broken voice.

“I’m so-“

“Harry, for Merlin’s sake, if you apologize to me one more time, I might just lose it. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, hearing you say that does not help. It’s like adding rubbing salt in a wound. It only makes it worse.”, she said, dropping back on the bed, burying her face into her hands.

“Ginny-“

“Just go. I don’t want to see you right now. I don’t want to see you….ever again.”, she said, waving a dismissing hand at Harry.

With silent understanding, Harry left the room without saying another word. He could still hear his best friend and his mother still verbally sparring with each other would absolutely no end in sight. Fortunately, he managed to sneak into the room that he used to share with Ron so many years ago. He needed another place to sleep tonight.

His ears detected the faint sound of flapping wings, which made him turn around.  
A small bird made out of paper flew into the room and Harry reached an open palm out towards it. The magical object landed in his hand and unfolded itself so Harry could see the writing within.

Did the potion work for you?

Harry recalled the events of the dream with a smile on his face as he wrote down a response.

Yes. Thanks, Bill. I saw my happiness and I can’t wait to see her again.


End file.
